Crime, Statecraft and the Imagination of the Global (LAW-DS-CRISTAIM)
LAW-DS-CRISTAIM
| Department |
LAW |
| Course category |
LAW Seminar - 3 credits |
| Course type |
Seminar |
| Academic year |
2026-2027 |
| Term |
2ND TERM |
| Credits |
3 (EUI Law credits) |
| Professors |
|
| Contact |
Law Department administration,
|
| Sessions |
20/01/2027 14:00-16:00 @ Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati
27/01/2027 14:00-16:00 @ Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati
03/02/2027 14:00-16:00 @ Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati
24/02/2027 14:00-16:00 @ Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati
03/03/2027 14:00-16:00 @ Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati
|
| Reading list |
Link
|
| Enrolment info |
21/09/2026 - 25/09/2026 |
Description
Description
Much discussion of international criminal law focuses on a relatively confined set of ‘international’ crimes (canonically, crimes against peace/aggression, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes). These are offences for which individual criminal responsibility arises directly under international law. Variants of these crimes have been placed within the subject-matter jurisdiction of prominent international tribunals, and they are associated with major evolutions in the international legal order, from the notion of jus cogens (higher order) norms to emerging exceptions to rules on immunity. But international law also makes provision for a host of other crimes, if not by directly prohibiting them then by requiring states to prohibit and prosecute them. This larger universe of crimes encompasses e.g. transnational organized crime, trafficking in persons, trafficking in drugs, corruption and terrorism offences. Treaty regimes providing for definition and suppression of these crimes can be politically and practically important. Some are deeply intertwined with distributions of interstate power and have significant impact on the lives of individuals and communities. Nevertheless, these treaty regimes for ‘transnational’ crimes are often separated off from atrocity crimes and studied in separate, specialized legal literatures.
While acknowledging important differences in legal basis and form between various ‘international’ and ‘transnational’ crimes, this seminar seeks to renew a broader lens on international criminal law. It explores how the definition and suppression of crime can both articulate a sense of global community and serve as an instrument of statecraft. Across the seminar sessions we will think together about three clusters of questions which might help develop this broader lens:
- What becomes a crime in international law, and how? How has definition of crimes been bound up with a sense of the global that transcends state interests, whether framed in terms of humanity, community interest, rights, shared vulnerability, material practices of criminal actors etc? What histories and interests shape the definition of particular crimes at particular moments?
- How do legal and institutional mechanisms for cooperation in the suppression of crime form part of a larger apparatus of governance? How have arrangements for extradition and mutual legal assistance, or more centralized mechanisms of cooperation, evolved over time, through imperial expansion, decolonization and development of regional institutions? How do these mechanisms amplify or challenge distributions of power between states, or among governments, peoples, transnational actors of various kinds?
- How are democratic backsliding and the resurgence of interstate conflict interacting with definition and suppression of international / transnational crime? We have seen unprecedented and unlawful pressure on international tribunals like the International Criminal Court, but how are present developments affecting other, less publicized regimes (e.g. on drug trafficking and corruption)? Is the rhetoric of crime playing any particular role in struggles between democratic and authoritarian rule? Might looking more closely at international / transnational crime offer a lens on larger shifts occurring in the international legal order?
Scope
As we only have five sessions, we cannot be comprehensive. We will be moving between pockets of detailed treatment and efforts to discern a broader picture. We will engage with legal regimes but also histories and ethnologies of crime, crime prevention and cooperation across borders, primarily over the 20th and 21st century. Those working in disciplines other than law, or on purely domestic contexts, are very welcome, and I hope we will also draw on researchers’ own projects and expertise in our discussions.
Engagement
The seminar requires active participation, which depends in turn on having engaged with core readings.
In order to receive credits or an attendance certificate for visitors, participants must attend at least 80% of the classes. Participation is in person only, with exceptions granted only in justified cases and subject to prior approval.
First, Second & Third Term: registration from 21 to 25 September 2026
Register for this course
Page last updated on 05 September 2023